Personally I just love adding bacopa to everything - I just love those tiny white flowers - I bought some seeds so I will see how those do......I also got some lobelia and a milkmaid vine to try....
This will only be my second year starting a few things from seeds so I am not very experienced in this in any way...actually most of my plants died last year that I tried starting from seed LOL Anyone have luck trying the above mentioned???
Seeds I will try indoors
I've grown seeds indoors for years and it's one of my favourite things to do. I would like your 2nd year to be a real success so you can see how rewarding growing from seed can be. Do you have any idea why alot of your seedlings died? Did you grow them under lights or on a windowsill. Did they die soon after they germinated? What medium did you grow the seedlings in? Did you fertilize them?
Well thanks so much for the support danglee....I appreciate it. Now to be honest with you I am by no means a pro gardener and I do not have the space nor do I care for the fancy light setups. My dahlia's and coreopsis grew just great on my window ledge. No I never fertilized when they were indoors because I would too scared to hurt them. I also tried Morning Glories, Sweet peas but they died because I left them outside and forgot to bring them in when I was hardening them off :( I am your very basic gardener LOL.
Oh yeah I just used pottix mix and peat pots to start my seeds....that was all. I just made sure they had enough to drink when they needed it and that is all I did.....
What advice do you have to offer??? Anything would be helpful!
This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 11:56 PM
Lobelia seeds are super tiny! I found Lobelia to be easy to grow from seed in my sunroom. Last year I just grew them in plastic egg cartons in a cheap mix--nothing fancy. I just put the cartons on shelves against my glass doors that face south, put the clear lids on to help keep the moisture level up during germination, and they sprung up happily. I had to keep a close eye on them for watering once I took the lids off as the egg cups are small and can dry up really fast, but after a little hardening off, they transplanted pretty easily.
I'll be trying Bacopa for the first time from seed this year too. What's a milkmaid vine? I don't know that one.
I found this on plant details on the milkmaid vine
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/154431/
Oh, thanks! I hadn't made the connection.
I fertilize my seedlings with half strength 10-52-10 water soluble fertilizer once a week for a month after they germinate and then switch to 20-20-20 until transplanting. I settled on this method after trying different ways and the plants seem to like this the best. I use seedless mix, promix that is compressed into plastic bags and sold at Home Depot. I grow the perennials in deep 2 1/4 inch pots and the annuals in peat pots. I prefer growlights to windowsills because at this time of year I don't find the sun strong enough or the days long enough to grow seedlings as sturdy as they grow under the lights. My setup is nothing fancy, I have 2 fixtures, one was bought at Costco, (a gorilla rack), and the other made by my husband. My other fixtures are hung by chains attached to hooks in the floor joists. I started with 2 lights, but gradually they have multiplied. I still never seem to have enough room for all the perennials and annuals I like to grow. I don't start morning glories or sweet peas until the beginning of May because they grow too tall by the time they can safely be hardened off outside.
thanks for the info tanglee....this site is sure a wealth of knowledge.
I am sure once you start doing these things the projects keep growing and growing right tanglee? I bet you have several lights now LOL
I've seeded Bacopa as well. I also like to mix it in most of my containers. I had great luck with petunias from seed last year, so I seeded a bunch of different kinds this year. I also try a new annual vine & have Asarina with the 3rd set of leaves so far. After the 2nd set of leaves form, I fertilize with diluted fish fertilizer once a week. It really stinks, so you don't want it to sit in the water tray. The plants did extremely well last year with the fish fertilizer.
You have to keep in mind that damping off can happen. I use a mix that is for starting seeds and contains no soil. This has proven to be very satisfactory.